I’ve written several times about the saga of Kent and Jo Hovind. The Hovinds are evangelists who formed Dinosaur Adventure Land, a theme park that mixed dinosaurs and the Bible. They also weren’t believers in the IRS, and used a combination of phony trusts, illegal structuring of transactions, and just not paying the IRS to avoid taxes. That led to a verdict against them in Tax Court, and was followed by Kent Hovind being found guilty of all 58 criminal counts he was accused of and Jo Hovind also being found guilty of criminal tax evasion. Mr. Hovind received 10 years at ClubFed while Mrs. Hovind received a year and a day. Additionally, $430,000 was forfeited to the US government.
They appealed their convictions and their sentences, and the 11th Circuit ruled on their appeal yesterday. Like the dinosaurs the Hovinds fared poorly. They lost on every one of their arguments and Mr. Hovind will be serving out his sentence.
As Judge Rogers put it when Mr. Hovind was convicted, “No one can violate the law and then say that they were doing so for the will of God.”
That’s a wrap on 2008. Have a safe and Happy New Year.
Hat Tip: TaxProf Blog
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